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I run server 2016 off of a I5 Asus 16gig system with 6 SSD's setup with the onboard raid. The OS runs on a 2 256g SSD;s in mirror config and the other 4 SSD;s are setup as Raid 5. On-board graphics is used and I have a add-on Intel Nic. It is setup with a .local domain, Active Directory, DNS and DHCP. Primary purpose is file storage and backup of the other home systems.

With that out of the way the question is till: What do you want with a server setup?

If your trying to learn servers, etc you should go with VM's. My main system is I7 with 64gigs, but I run 5 virtual servers and Kali Linux in a testing enviroment inside of HyperV

I run server 2016 off of a I5 Asus 16gig system with 6 SSD's setup with the onboard raid. The OS runs on a 2 256g SSD;s in mirror config and the other 4 SSD;s are setup as Raid 5. On-board graphics is used and I have a add-on Intel Nic. It is setup with a .local domain, Active Directory, DNS and DHCP. Primary purpose is file storage and backup of the other home systems.

With that out of the way the question is till: What do you want with a server setup?

If your trying to learn servers, etc you should go with VM's. My main system is I7 with 64gigs, but I run 5 virtual servers and Kali Linux in a testing enviroment inside of HyperV

It depends on how much storage capacity you want. I have built servers from Intel NUC boxes, with a single large m2 ssd for the os and vms, and a 2.5 inch 2TB ssd for storage. That's as much as you can do with one of those, but hey: $500 and you have a server with enough oomph to host a couple of VMs, one of them a 2Tb file server.

But if you want a real server, with a bunch of storage and RAID, you'll need a real box. I'm just answering on the basis of you want a functional play/learning server cheap.

Hey OP! I know your question is kind of broad but I'd suggest looking into open source solutions if you're looking to tinker around for personal use and learn about the differences between open source and commercial solutions- SUSE is a great resource for learning about this, but definitely feel free to hit me up anytime if you'd like more info or want to talk Linux :)